The Godfather of Football

Tottenham Hotspur first won the Club World Cup and successfully defended the world championship. Then, after returning to London, they announced the fan salon and Stratford Stadium commercial street plan in one breath. On Christmas Eve, Tottenham Hotspur successfully attracted the attention of the world, and no one even paid attention to the popular talent day selection activities.

More and more people are beginning to discuss this new business model brought by Tottenham Hotspur, because many of Tottenham Hotspur's initiatives are not available in the football world before.

In the past, football clubs have also engaged in real estate. For example, Arsenal operated the Highbury Apartment Project, but it lost a lot of money and is still rotting in its hands and cannot be sold. Manchester United's several projects are too small to be ignored.

The largest real estate project is Real Madrid. After selling the old sports city, Florentino's company turned it into a skyscraper commercial district, but this is not Real Madrid's own project. The only thing that can be said is that Real Madrid still has one or two valuable pieces of land in Madrid that have not been taken back from the government, and the commercial corner of the Bernabeu Stadium is also very attractive.

But all of these pale in comparison to Tottenham's projects.

From Chinatown to Chiswick Office Park, to a series of office building projects, Tottenham has always given people the impression that it is very keen on real estate investment. In fact, in the past few years, Tottenham has made amazing profits from real estate projects.

Now, the second phase of the Chiswick Office Park project has been launched, and the surprising Stratford Stadium Commercial Street plan has been launched. All of this gives people a feeling that Tottenham is very wealthy.

Regarding this impression of the outside world, Peter Kenyon also admitted in an interview with the media that the team did withdraw funds from the club's operations and transfer income for investment, but this did not affect the team's operations.

"Many people are right. We have been profitable almost every year since we took over the team in 2006, especially after I took over Tottenham Hotspur. In the beginning, most of our profits and surpluses in the transfer market were invested in the new stadium. Later, we also invested in some other small commercial projects."

"For the Chinatown project and the second phase of the Chiswick Office Park, as well as the current Stratford Commercial Street project, we have obtained low-interest loans from banks. Although we have debts, it is not a big problem because we have very ample cash flow and our profitability is very high."

Peter Kenyon's statement was also recognized by the Deloitte assessment report. They believe that although Tottenham Hotspur's debt is as high as hundreds of millions, the interest rate is very low and it is a long-term loan, so the repayment pressure is not great. Secondly, as long as the team feels it is necessary, it can sell a player in the team to repay the debt, such as Messi, who is worth 250 million euros.

Moreover, Tottenham's debt is to the real estate company, which has little to do with the football club itself. Besides, there is a wealthy Ye Qiu standing behind it. Who would believe that Tottenham would go bankrupt?

This is also the reason why so many banks are willing to lend money to Tottenham, and many of them even take the initiative to come to the door.

According to Tottenham's plan, unless Europe has another European debt crisis, the commercial street plan will be put into use in two years, and the bank loan of this project will be repaid within five years. In other words, in seven years, Tottenham will enjoy huge annual rental income.

You know, the European Union now attaches great importance to the economy. After the European debt crisis, the economy of the whole Europe is gradually recovering. At least in the short term, there is almost no possibility of another European debt crisis. At best, it is just slow economic growth, especially for a world-famous financial center city like London.

Therefore, Tottenham has no pressure at all on this point.

Because of this, including the Times and the Guardian, Tottenham Hotspur was ridiculed as a landlord, and believed that Ye Qiu's approach to Tottenham Hotspur laid a long-term pillar for the future development of the team, even greater than the contribution that President Bernabeu made to Real Madrid.

At the very least, the property left by Bernabeu is valuable only when it is sold, but the property left by Ye Qiu does not need to be sold, and there is money to be collected every year, and all of this is actually closely related to Tottenham Hotspur's annual sale of superstars.

In addition to the success in the business field, Tottenham Hotspur also received several good news before Christmas.

The first is Ribery, the best player of the Club World Cup. After returning to London, he immediately received news from French football. Ribery chose the title of French Footballer of the Year in 2013. This was also his fifth time to be elected as French Footballer of the Year, tying the number of awards won by his predecessor Henry, but Henry is now old, and Ribery is still playing football, and there is a good chance of breaking Henry's record.

In addition, in the selection of the FIFA Golden Ball Award, Ribery was included in the list of three major candidates together with Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. According to the current situation and the voices of outside fans and media, the person most likely to win the award will be one of Ribery and Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo has little chance of winning the award.

The Premier League also announced before Christmas that Ribery won the 2013 Premier League Player of the Year award over Messi, and won the title again. Many people also believe that this is another chip for Ribery to win the Ballon d'Or.

The Times and some other newspapers are selecting the best team of the year. There is no doubt about the goalkeeper. Cech has proved his position as the world's number one goalkeeper for many years. On the defensive line, Marcelo is the left back, Thiago Silva and Kompany are the central defenders, and the right back is Bayern Munich's captain Lahm. In this position, Kyle Walker performed well, but compared with Lahm, he is not stable enough.

The selection of the defensive line is not controversial in the best lists of various newspapers. It is basically this one.

In the midfield, Pirlo's performance has declined this year, especially after returning from injury, he lost his main position. Matic is new and temporarily uncompetitive, so Tottenham's best midfielder competition is basically Vidal and Ramsey. If it is a three-man midfield, there should be another one, Schweinsteiger. If it is a 442, Hazard of Tottenham will also be selected.

There is not much controversy in the forward line. Tottenham's trident Ribery, Lewandowski and Messi almost monopolize the three players in the frontcourt, but Spain's Marca and AS both included Cristiano Ronaldo and cancelled Lewandowski, believing that the Polish center is not as good as the Portuguese.

No matter how biased the selection of newspapers in various countries is, Tottenham is without exception the big winner of major awards and an indispensable and prominent protagonist in major awards.

Also before Christmas, UEFA held a draw ceremony for the Champions League round of 16 knockout rounds. Tottenham Hotspur drew a good draw this time, Olympiacos from Greece, which almost means that Tottenham Hotspur will advance to the quarterfinals ahead of schedule.

…………

…………

With the end of the grand Christmas carnival, the Premier League began to usher in the Christmas devil schedule.

Although Tottenham Hotspur has one less round, it is still the leader of the Premier League. In addition, the team won the Club World Cup in Morocco and returned to London. After that, they immediately rested and actively responded to the Christmas devil schedule. Therefore, in the three games of Christmas, Tottenham Hotspur successively defeated their opponents.

They defeated West Bromwich 4:1 at home, Stoke City 3:0 at home, and Moyes' Manchester United 2:1 away. This season, Tottenham Hotspur's two games with Manchester United were only one month apart, very close, because the Premier League schedule is randomly arranged.

Unexpectedly, in January 2014, Tottenham Hotspur faced the third round of the FA Cup, and their opponent was Arsenal, their city rival.

Both sides had experienced the test of the Christmas devil schedule, and both sides had also been devastated by intensive competitions. Therefore, in this case, the biggest test for both sides was not the main lineup, but whose bench was strong enough.

At this point, Arsenal could not catch up with Tottenham Hotspur. In the end, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Arsenal 2:0 away with goals from Hazard and Drogba, and successfully advanced to the next round, while Drogba continued his role as the nightmare of Arsenal defenders.

In the middle of the week, the League Cup ushered in the first leg of the semi-finals, but because Tottenham Hotspur had played one less round before, they now made up for the quarter-finals, narrowly beating West Ham United 2:1 at home, and their opponent in the semi-finals was Manchester United.

Unlucky Moyes, the Red Devils had many problems, but they encountered Tottenham Hotspurs in a row in just over a month. This was undoubtedly a very tragic thing for Moyes, especially when they had already suffered a double defeat by Tottenham Hotspurs in the league.

Ye Qiu was not surprised by this result, because the draw had already determined that Manchester United's opponent would be either Tottenham Hotspurs or West Ham United, and as long as Tottenham Hotspurs advanced, they would face Manchester United.

So, after the game against West Ham United, Ye Qiu smiled and said in an interview with the media, "I hope to complete a quadruple kill against Manchester United this season, because I believe that feeling must be great!"

Moyes refused to answer Ye Qiu's provocation, because his team performed poorly in the two encounters with Tottenham Hotspurs, and it was hard to say whether the third and fourth times would be better.

On January 11, in the 21st round of the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspurs continued to rotate significantly and defeated Crystal Palace 2:0 at home.

After the game, many players of Tottenham Hotspur went to Zurich to attend the FIFA Awards Ceremony. This time, Tottenham Hotspur invested a lot of money in Ribery.

Since Messi admitted at the beginning of the season that he hoped Ribery could win the Ballon d'Or and fulfill his dream, Tottenham Hotspur has been actively working on this matter. Ribery's performance is indeed quite impressive. Except for his poor performance in the national team, he is the most eye-catching player in Tottenham Hotspur.

Especially before the Ballon d'Or ceremony, he was also the most valuable player of the Club World Cup, which undoubtedly increased Ribery's chances of winning the award. Not only that, Ye Qiu also publicly supported Ribery on many different occasions, believing that he should be recognized and affirmed by this award.

"I'm not trying to say who is more powerful or who is more famous, I just want to say that in the past year, Franck Ribery has been one of the best players in football today, and as a Tottenham player Tottenham's head coach, I think, he should get this award, and as for Messi..."

When Ye Qiu was being interviewed by reporters on the red carpet outside the Zurich Opera House, he smiled and patted Messi on the shoulder. "He is already a phenomenal player. He has won many Ballon d'Or awards. I think he You should give way to Ribery!”

This is actually a consensus reached within Tottenham Hotspur. Even Messi himself has taken the initiative to express his willingness to support Ribery to win the award, because now he no longer needs to use the award to gain attention and influence for himself. force.

Although the same is true for Ribery, he has always had a dream that is difficult to realize in his heart, that is, he missed the World Footballer of the Year in 2008. This is the biggest regret of his entire career, and now he is about to win the third At eleven years old and his career on the decline, this might be his last chance to compete for the award.

In order to support Ribery, the official website of Tottenham Hotspur uploaded a canvassing video the day before the award ceremony, which contained a declaration of Tottenham Hotspur players supporting Ribery in winning the award, which included: Drogba, who is close to Ribery, shouted loudly from inside, "If Ribery wins the Ballon d'Or, I will go to the streets in my underwear to show you!"

In the overwhelming publicity and promotion of Tottenham Hotspur, Ribery became the number one favorite and Messi became the second favorite. However, the Spanish Daily Sports published an article on the day before the Ballon d’Or. An inside message came out about FIFA’s unofficial decision to win the award for Cristiano Ronaldo.

It is mentioned here that FIFA President Blatter once inappropriately mocked Cristiano Ronaldo in a speech at Oxford University. The two formed a rift, and Blatter has always hoped to Make amends for Cristiano Ronaldo.

Now, Cristiano Ronaldo has played very amazing statistics and goals in Real Madrid. Although Tottenham Hotspur has Messi and Ribery, the two stars are competing with each other this season, but it is possible that Leading to internal friction in the team, so it is entirely possible for Cristiano Ronaldo to break out.

Florentino also publicly supported Cristiano Ronaldo, believing that this year's situation is very good. Messi is still the most loved by fans and the best-performing superstar in today's football, but in the past year, his The performance was faintly suppressed by Franck Ribery, making Tottenham Hotspur's two top superstars likely to fight among themselves.

As the saying goes, the fisherman wins when the snipe and the clam compete, and Cristiano Ronaldo is considered to be very likely to win the prize.

Messi walked beside Ye Qiu with Antonella. When being interviewed by the media, he smiled and expressed that he also supported his teammates.

"If Ribery can win this award, I and everyone will be happy for him, because he deserves this award!" Messi said very sincerely and with a very serious attitude.

"Only in the hearts of our Tottenham Hotspur players can we clearly understand the importance of Ribery to the team. Sometimes I even think that Tottenham Hotspur can do without Messi, but I can’t live without Ribery, I learned a lot from him and he taught me a lot.”

"We are very good friends. I believe that no matter what the result is today, he will be the winner of the Golden Globe Award in my heart. I will still be proud of him!"

In fact, Tottenham Hotspur has two other awards at this Golden Globe Awards ceremony, namely Men's Football Coach of the Year and Team of the Year.

The best team of the year has been announced before. The goalkeeper is Cech, the defense is Marcelo, Thiago Silva, Kompany and Lahm, and the midfielder is Vidal, Xavi and Ribery. The frontcourt is Messi, Ibrahimovic and Cristiano Ronaldo.

This is also a controversial area, that is, the midfielder. Xavi's selection has indeed caused a lot of criticism, because his performance is actually not ideal, and although Ibrahimovic performed very well in Newcastle Excellent, one person supported this team, but failed to participate in the Champions League and Europa League, making this team not attractive.

Therefore, this has caused controversy among the outside world. In terms of influence, Xavi should be selected, but how could Ibrahimovic be selected?

The converse is not quite true either!

Therefore, many people feel that there are some problems with this selection, and Ribery was placed in the midfield. Many people feel that midfielders are much less likely to win the Ballon d'Or than strikers. Messi And Cristiano Ronaldo are both forwards.

After awarding several awards including the Best Team of the Year, Ye Qiu successfully defeated other competitors and won the Best Men's Football Coach of the Year award. This was actually the least suspenseful award because Ye Qiu had won the award in the past year. In this year, he led Tottenham Hotspur to create too many brilliant achievements, and it would be unreasonable not to win awards.

After several awards were awarded one after another, it was finally the turn of the FIFA Ballon d'Or winner.

The person who was in charge of presenting the FIFA Ballon d'Or was Brazilian legend Pele, who had just won the Honorary Ballon d'Or. When the old football king walked up to the podium, he smiled and said that he supported Ribery to win the award. However, when Pele said this, many people in the audience were shocked, because this was a well-known bad mouth.

He supported Ribery, so did Ribery still have a chance?